THE OLD RELICS

FINDING SOME 007 ITEMS IN THE LOFT HAS BOUGHT BACK HAPPY MEMORIES OF MR. DALTON'S BRIEF TENURE AS JAMES BOND

Back in the days when I was a young lad and Timothy Dalton was James Bond - back in the days before the internet - I was really enterprising and by spending some time looking things up at my local library I was able to find an address for Aston Martin Lagonda Limited, of Newport Pagnell.

Armed with the address I promptly wrote a letter to them, telling them how much I liked the scenes featuring the Aston Martin in The Living Daylights and I hoped that the film makers would continue to let 007 get behind the wheel of an Aston for many years to come.

Imagine my surprise when. a few days later I received a letter in a large envelope. It was from Aston Martin, thanking me for my letter and also saying that they enjoyed The Living Daylights too. But what really excited me and made me feel like Christmas had come early, was that they kindly enclosed some photo's of the Aston Martin from the film, and one photo showing work being done on the car whilst filming was under way at Pinewood Studio's.

Looking in the box that the photo's were in I also found a few more things, such as a 4-page synopsis and crew listing from when the film was released at cinemas:

I then also found something still in it's original wrapper - but - shock - horror - I seriously contemplated using! It was a 007 Car Window Bullet Holes and Magnetic Licence Holder! This would look really good on my Renault! But after a moment of insanity i remembered myself and put it back in the box!

When I looked at this item two things struck me:

I really like the original artwork showing the Aston Martin from The Living Daylights firing it's rockets whilst surrounded by other elements from the film.

Isn't it a Tax Disc Holder and not a Licence Holder?

The last The Living Daylights item I found in the loft was a flyer for the (then) ultra stylish range of James bond sportswear released by Starwears to celebrate the release of The Living daylights and the 25th Anniversary of 007.

One thing that I really like about this flyer is the way in which the people taking the photo's of the models sporting the clothes took the time to go to the gatehouse at Pinewood Studios. It's not a long stretch of the imagination to think that behind the gatehouse in the photo Timothy Dalton was busy being Bond, or that A-Ha was busy filming the music video on the 007 Stage.